California to drive hatchery-raised salmon to the sea (10:54 a.m.)

SACRAMENTO (AP) — The California Department of Fish and Game will truck nearly 17 million hatchery-raised salmon directly to the ocean in an effort to revive the state’s salmon population.

SACRAMENTO (AP) — The California Department of Fish and Game will truck nearly 17 million hatchery-raised salmon directly to the ocean in an effort to revive the state’s salmon population.

Wildlife officials say many of the young fish are eaten or sucked into state’s water pumps as they swim downstream and through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the Pacific. That’s why they are giving the fish a lift around those dangers.

The federal hatchery near Redding also plans to truck about 10 percent of its young salmon to the sea, hoping the move will help more fish survive to adulthood.

Some fisheries experts worry that trucking salmon around their home rivers will eliminate the instinct that draws the fish back to their native waters to spawn.